The St. Louis Cardinals manager was talking about his managing counterpart, the D-backs’ Kirk Gibson, before Monday’s game, saying the fact that it was Gibson who hit the greatest home run in World Series history — and thereby deflated LaRussa’s Oakland A’s in the 1988 Series — eased the pain of losing that series.
↵Then LaRussa said his favorite player of all time — and LaRussa has seen A LOT of good players — is none other than a guy on the Arizona bench.
↵Don Baylor? “No, but he’s one of them,” LaRussa said.
↵Alan Trammell? Affirmative. The Diamondbacks bench coach and former big-league shortstop.
↵“He’s a Hall of Fame player,” LaRussa said. “It’s amazing he doesn’t get more Hall of Fame support.”
↵LaRussa said Trammell was as good a player as 2002 inductee Ozzie Smith. Trammell has been voted on 10 times and has come up short in votes each time.